Fujifilm’s High-lubricity Lubricant Additive Has No Heavy Metals

Fujifilm Corp. has developed a lubricant additive that can greatly reduce friction in a lubricant and is free of environmental pollutants like heavy metals, consisting only of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The company plans to promote the additive to makers of engine oils, industrial lubricants, machine oils, cutting oils and greases. The additive’s viscosity remains low even under high pressure, and it can curb a rise in the viscosity of lubricants by about 30%. With Fujifilm’s proprietary dispersion technology, the molecules are concentrated on friction/sliding areas, and the size of molecular aggregates in the additive varies in a range of 30-700 nanometers depending to temperature, forming a flexible film between surfaces. Lubricants for steel parts usually maintain their fluidity through reaction between their additives and iron, but the fluid lubricity of the new additive does not involve chemical reactions, allowing its use with a variety of materials including iron, plastics and ceramics. (June 30, 2009)